Naruto: What if?
by The Other Side of Darkness
Summary: Major AU. Kyuubi was not the name of the demon fox, Naruto was not the Yondaime's son, and the pairing is not what you think it is. Unless you guess it correctly then i guess it is what you think it is.
1. Chapter 1

And so i find myself writing a story about Naruto in a way inpsired by a picture i saw somewhere that i forgot otherwise i would give you the link to it so you could see it too... Now aparently the picture had some kind of purpose to the original idea of naruto but i've decided i'm gonna write a what if story containing only two elements of that. both should be figured out in this chapter. By the way just so you all know, the pairings in this story will most likely be revealed later so just keep your pants on... or boxers... or whatever it is your wearing at your waist... and if your not wearing anything for the grace of the Kyuubi put something on damn it!

Side note: All the kids in naruto are four at the time of the attack.

Disclaimer: Even if I did own Naruto(Which I don't!) I'd still write fanfiction for it. I just love what if stories. Peace Peopleses!

Chapter one: Demon Attack

A giant golden yellow fox demon was attacking the Village Hidden in the Leaves, it's nine tails wreacking havoc. The current Hokage, a young man who had a foreign name, was leading his people into an all out last resort attack. Already too many of their men had died and if the Yondaime, Ozell, had anything to say in the matter, no more beyond tonight would fall.

The giant demon, that called himself Arashi, was beginning to tire after three days of constant battle, this was their only chance to attack him. Didn't these mortals know when to give up. He could see one with long red hair leading this new group into an attack. He could clearly sense that this one was the strongest of them. Still Arashi would have no problem.

How wrong the demon lord was.

Ozell began doing the handsealls for the Jutsu that he had come up with his sensei, Jiraiya. He knew it was a last ditch effort and that even if it didn't work he would die, but it was better than just letting the demon destroy his village. With the final hand seal in place he called out the dreaded Nin-justsu. "Zetsumei Kami Ken!" (Death God Blade)

The god of death being summoned required a sacrifice, and Ozell offered up himself. Zatsumei had a feral grin on his dark red face as he was given a solid body. In seconds he changed it to a style of his liking before he looked at the Great Demon Fox. Ozells pale skin became dark red, his hair ghostly white, his eyes became a pale grey barely distinguishable from the rest of the eye.

The fox knew it was outmatched, but it didn't back down. Arashi would never back down from a challenge. He charged at the death god.

Zastumei smirked and pulled the knife he carried out of it's sheath, then with a single touch of the blade to Arashi's fur, the great fox died. It looked merely as if he had tripped over Zatsumei as his body left the ground for a moment before landing and skidding for a good half kilometer.

Zatumei turned around to Admire his work before leaving Ozell's body.

_You may say your parting words before I take your soul,_ Zatsumei projected to Ozell. Ozell's body went back to normal, his hair once again becoming red, his eyes turning back to the odd half brown half grey coloring.

The village's ninja rushed to their leader. Yamanaka Inoichi, a recently promoted jounin, supported their leader quietly. He and Ozell were good friends despite the rivalry in their clans, but Inoichi could find no words to give to his dying friend.

Suddenly a yelping and sounds of cursing were heard. Hyuuga Hizashi suddenly came forth with a nine tailed orange-red fox demon with black feet the size of a small football that had been knocked out with a well placed blow from the jyuuken. By the bite marks on the Nara man's arms behind him, this fox must have been a biter.

"We found this kit protecting the fox's body," said Hizashi as he approached the two friends. Ozell looked at the young kit without contempt as many would have thought he would, but instead sympathy. They had probably killed this little kit's only family. He knew for a fact that the only way a male demon would raise a kit was if the mother had died.

"The demon's offspring no doubt," said a brash woman from the Inuzuka clan," I say we kill it. Before it has a chance to become strong like it's sire." This was corrused by many a yell of concurrence.

"No," the Yondaime croaked out, "Do not harm him."

"But Hokage-sama-"

"It is our responsibility to account for the innocent," Ozell cut off one ninja.

"But a demon is hardly innocent! Just look at it! It's a monster!" yelled the Inuzuka. Another corrus of agreement.

The hokage held up his hand, and all went quiet.

"Please," he said softly," Accept it as my dying wish. Perhaps if we teach this fox human morals it will grow up to protect this village."

All were silent, but they nodded their heads in affiermation. The hokage smiled and said one last thing before his soul left his body to be devoured by the death god, Zatsumei.

"Good bye... My friends," and then the hokage's eyes closed for the last time and his final breath left his lungs.

(( About six hours later, in the Hokage tower holding cell))

The little fox woke up, hungry and affraid, in the confines of a jail cell mesh wiring over the bars so he could not escape. He yipped in fear. He could not remember who he was, what had happened, or what he had done to be put in this small cell, but he knew it didn't feel safe and he wanted out. Apparently the hit from the Hyuuga had affected his memory.

Soon enough he heard someone coming and hid under the cot in his cell, wrapping himself in three of his tails so only his bright blue eyes shown through. He saw two strange tall creatures stop infront of his cell and begin working with the lock.

After a moment the shorter of the two giants opened the cage and the taller of the two platinum robes walked in. The door closed behind him. He briefly wondered if this creature was brought here for the same reason as him, although he didn't know he was the reason he was there in the first place.

The tall creature kneeled down before him and his hid his eyes too, his body quivering in fear. He heard it making some strange sounds which slowly translated into words which he wasn't sure how he understood.

"Don't worry little one, I wont hurt you," it's voice was kind and gentle. He decided to peak out from behind his tails.

When he did a delicious smell hit his nose. He saw that the giant was holding out one of it's limbs and on the end of it was a piece of charred meat. Just then the kit's hunger decided to reassert itself by growling loudly.

" Would you like some? It's good, see," the giant broke off a piece of the charred meat and ate it. Slowly the kit came forward, snuffling at the ground but keeping it's eyes on the giant. Once it was close enough it carefully nipped at the charred meat till it was all gone. With a fully belly, the kit forgot it's fear and jumped into the giants lap, which looked very comfortable, and yawned cutely.

The giant smiled and tickled it under it's chin for a moment before taking the tired kit carefully in his arms and standing up. he headed to the door of the cage and knocked twice. The shorter giant from earlier came back and opened the door.

Before the kit fell asleep in the giant's arms he heard a small conversation between the two creatures.

"Are you sure you want to do this, Yamanaka-san? He is a demon after all."

"Yes, I'm sure, Kakashi-kun. Besides, Ino has been begging for a pet for some time now," his voice still sounded kind but it held a loving tone to it now. Just after that the young kit fell asleep.

((Quick author's note))

I know it's moving a little quick but i want to get to the main part of the story as fast as i can ok? when i get hooked up on beginnings that's normally what makes me quit writing.

((Four years later))

An alarm clock buzzed loudly for about two seconds before a small hand shot out to silence it. Ino Yamanaka got out of bed grumbling. A single lock of her short hair hung in her eyes before she pushed it behind her ear. After getting out of bed she walked over to the small doggy bed in the corner of her room. It contained a small orange-red nine tailed fox. She smiled at her pet for a moment, wondering how it slept through her alarm clock going off when it was supposed to have hearing hundreds of times more sensitive than her own.

She scratched behind his ears and it immediately woke him up. He rolled over onto his back, opening it's deep blue eyes, and it's tongue lolling out the side of it's mouth. Ino giggled at her cute little fox before rubbing it's belly.

"Good morning, Kyuubi-kun," she said cheerily. Kyuubi allways cheered her up in the mornings.

The kit rolled back over onto it's feet and yipped happily at her. Instead of a collar like most pets wore, her's wore a miniature pair of ninja goggles on it's forhead. To Ino it was the cutest thing she could immagine. Reluctantly she got up to go take her morning shower before she had to head to the ninja training academy.

Twenty minutes later she came out in the clothes her mother had laid out for her. She gave Kyuubi a quick treat before heading out to the academy. As soon as she was gone, Kyuubi closed his eyes and focused his chakra in his entire body.

Slowly the young demon fox became a young boy. He had striking blond hair, a blue shirt with a swirl on it, orange shorts(his favorite color), and the same pair of ninja goggles only bigger to fit his head. He also had whisker shaped marks on his cheeks, and the same bright blue eyes as when he was in kitsune form.

He hopped down the stairs, bowing to both Inoichi and his wife and giving them a morning greeting before bolting out the door to head for the ninja accademy. He ignored the glares from the villagers who knew what he was and kept running. He past Ino on his way and only glanced at her for a moment before continuing on his way to the academy.

He was hoping to get there early so he could see Sakura-chan. She was Ino's friend once, but was now her rival over Sasuke. Naruto had a small crush on her. The pink haired girl was kinda loud and sometimes mean when he tried to talk to her, but he thought she was pretty.

He noticed out of the corner of his eyes that the young Hyuuga girl watched him, almost to the point of freaking him out till he figured out a while back ago that the Hyuuga Hinata had a crush on him. It made him smile a little inside but he knew she wasn't the type for him. She was just too shy.

He wanted someone outgoin, someone who could take charge, someone more like Ino-chan. Sakura was right up his alley, he believed. Unfortunately for him, as mentioned before, she was after Sasuke. Along with most of the other girls in class.

He finally burst through the doors to class and walked up to the seat he usually took at the back of the class. A few seconds later both Ino-chan and Sakura-chan burst in arguing about who got their first. It was their early morning ritual really. They'd both be walking to the academy, then they'd meet each other and begin a civil conversation, which would turn not so civil as on would begin walking faster, the other not wanting to be outdone would match the pace then exceed it, and by the time they reached the academy both were running at full out just to say they had beat the other in something.

In truth they were very evenly matched. The only advantage that Ino-chan had was her clan jutsu, the Shintenshin, or mind transfer technique. Naruto figured that if they ever got in a fight they'd probably just end up knockig eachother out, and end it in a tie.

Soon enough he heard the squabbling of almost all the girls in the class over who would sit next to their precious Sasuke-kun. Naruto sniffed irately at the sole Uchiha. He always smelled like anger and obsession. He hated those smells. Naruto was taught that anger was a weakness, and when combined with obsession it could have dangerous results. He had no doubt the Uchiha would use each and everyone of those girls as mere stepping stones if they could get him what ever it was he was obsessed with.

Naruto swore on his ninth tail that if Sasuke-teme hurt Sakura-chan or Ino-chan, the Uchiha would pay dearly.

Sasuke as usual ignored everyone until their teachers walked into the room. one was a brown haired man with a scar across the bridge of his nose, the next was a silver haired man with silver hair and Naruto didn't like the way he smelled even more than Sasuke-teme. He smelled like blood.

"Good morning, class," The brown haired teacher said.

"Good morning, Sensei," they responded automatically. This too was ritual. After saying their morning greetings they immediately jumped right into the lesson. today they were learning about the henge technique. Naruto already knew plenty about it, but pretended to be learning anyways. After all, Konoha's number one prankster fox demon had to know how to disguise himself.

He didn't do anything too terrible, just things that would make some people laugh and others frown and occasionally get a detention. Those were the things that really got him in trouble.

When Ino-chan got home she was expecting her Kyuubi-kun to be there. When he wasn't she always worried he might have run off, even though he had always come back before. When he came back to her out of his detention she would always hold him securely and scold him for worrying her.

He smiled a little to himself. It felt good knowing someone cared for him, even if it was only in his fox form. But that was his true form anyways so no worries.

"Naruto!" Iruka-sensei's voice startled him out of his thoughts, "Well since you seem to not be paying attention you must already know about the henge justsu. Why don't you tell us all about it?" As mentioned before, he ofcourse knew all about the henge, but he acted the fool. The first lesson the academy ever taught was that one should never let anyone see their true self. So if Naruto acted the fool, everyone would think he was just another idiot. O fcourse the prankster thing was all him, he was a kitsune after all. Plus, it realIy was just funny seeing Mizuki-sensei's face practically glow red in anger when ever he was glued to his chair.

"Uh, heh heh," Naruto stammered uselessly as Iruka frowned.

"Naruto, pay attention. If I have to tell you again today you get a detention," iruka then went back into the lesson. Naruto decided to act like he was paying attention. He didn't want to worry Ino-chan today.

(( that day after school))

Naruto ran home ahead of Ino, as per usual, so he could be waiting for her when she got there like she expected him to be. Turning back to his true form was quicker than taking on a human form. Probably because it felt more natural. He quickly hurried up the stairs and laid down in his doggy bed. He gave a small yawn before resting his head on his paws and closing his bright blue eyes to enjoy a short nap.

After about fifteen minutes Ino came home and called his name, "Kyuubi-kun." His eyes opened and the closet thing he could manage of a smile appeared on his vulpine face. He got out of his little doggy bed and ran downstairs. As usual he tripped on the last step causing him to tip head over heels. He stopped rolling after a second, flat on his belly, his tails splayed out behind him.

Ino giggled before bending down to pick up her cute little pet, "Kyuubi-kun, you silly fox." She scolded him jokingly. Kyuubi just nuzzled into her arms. She took him to the tv room to watch a soap opera for an hour. Kyuubi didn't really pay attention to what as going on, instead deciding to finsh his nap in her lap while she absently pet him from head to mid back.

Kyuubi woke up a little later in his doggy bed and outside the sun was almost finished setting. He could smell miso soup and grilled chicken downstairs. He once again ran down the steps, tripping on the last one, and finally making it outside in the backyard to join Ino and her parents. Ino ofcourse slipped him small bits of chiken when her parents weren't looking, making him a very happy kit.

A/N; This is as good a place as any to end it. And a quick note to those who are gonna yell at me for naming a kawaii ninetailed fox form Naruto Kyuubi because it's an insult to the great demons image: I already know that. but i don't care. so you might as well just hold your tongues because it will do you know good to mention it.


	2. Chapter 2

Heh heh, looks like people liked chapter one. I'm glad. I'm going to try an make this chapter longer but no promises.

Ok screw holding back the pairing. This is going to be InoxNaruto. i've recently stumbled upon this pairing and found it to be absolutely adorable and decided since this was going to be AU anyways might as well take it where i want it to go.

Also i have to warn you all that i don't feel like translatig the techniques i know into japanese unless i already know the japanese names so expect a mixture of japanese and english titles.

Chapter Two: Gennin Exam

The village of Konoha was having a peaceful, sunny day. The birds were singing, the sun was shining, and the few clouds in the sky were billowy and white, adding to the serenity of the scene. All was calm.

"GET BACK HERE YOU BRAT!" Well it _was_ calm... until a certain demon fox decided to skip class.

Naruto was laughing his head off as he sped accross the roof tops, two chuunin chasing after him. They both had black ink all over ther faces, some of it writing, most of it just little doodles.

"That's what you get for sleeping on the job, Bozos!" he called back to them through his laughter. It has been two years since we last visited the Village Hidden in the Leaves, and not much has changed. A few new shops had opened, some had closed, most children attended the ninja academy, and some decided to pursue other careers.

One of the thins to change was Naruto. He still had his ninja goggles, but he had traded in his shirt and shorts for a pair of orange sweat pants, a pair of shinobi boot/sandal thingies, an orange jacket with fluff on the shoulders that he always left unzipped, and a navy blue undershirt with the swirling pattern on it.

Naruto made good time, running from the higher rank ninjas, and it bothered them to no end that they couldn't catch a mere academy student. They were chuunin for goodness sake! They should be able to catch some brat that wasn't even a gennin yet!

"Ha ha ha, you can't catch me! I'm the great Uzumaki Naruto, future Hokage!" His confidence was unbreakable at this point. They had been after him for half an hour and couldn't even touch him. Losers!

Suddenly, someone caught him by the back of his jacket, causing him to stop. He struggled momentarily before looking of his shoulder and laughing nervously.

"Heh heh, hi, Iruka-sensei," the older chuunin, raised one eyebrow and looked up as the two other chuunin stopped beside him, breathing hard. He once again looked at Naruto and noticed, not for the first time, that he didn't seem winded at all.

"Naurot, this is the third time this week you've cut my class," the chuunin said irrately. Iruka would never understand why he didn't hate this fox demon. Of course he knew what Naruto was, all the teachers did. He knew that this was undoubtedly the son of the Great Nine-tailed Arashi, the fox demon lord, but when he saw the other teachers mistreat Naruto in his first year at the academy he couldn't bring the strength to his fists to add to the supposedly deserved torture. Naruto thought they treated him like that because they knew he was a demon, never remembering the blood in his veins being half of the great Arashi's.

He knew that the fox demon disguised himself as a normal kit where he lived, and he knew he lived with Yamanaka Ino as her pet. He understood that the fox didn't have a life that could be no worse, but... well from the final attack of Arashi Iruka lost both his parents. He was one among many orphans that the fox demon had produced as result of his attack, and he knew what it felt like to be adopted.

When you were an adoptee you were treated kindly almost always. You received gifts on occasion and on your birthday, you played with your adopted brothers or sisters, and you pretended to be happy. But you couldn't be. It all felt cheap. Like some sort of consolation. Like someone had just up and said, 'Oh, your famly is dead? How terrible. Here live with these kind folk as a sad reminder of what you once had.'

The final thing Iruka knew without a doubt by looking into the Kit's eyes, be they human form or fox, they held a lonliness only those who had lost all their family would know, but Naruto's was worse. He couldn't remember anything about his sire or his sire's mate. All he knew was when he saw Ino-chan spending time with her parents, he felt a dull ache where his heart was and no matter what he tried it wouldn't go away. And because of these feelings running through the son of the terrible demon, Iruka felt some sort of kinship with Naruto.

"But, Iruka-sensei, I already know all about the henge technique," Naruto protested, pulling Iruka out of his thoughts.

"Oh, really? Then prove it," Iruka challenged. The moment he did, though, he regretted it as he saw the famous mischivious fox grin pass over his students features before forming a quick handseal.

"Transform!" After the puff of smoke faded there stood a young petite woman with blonde hair, blue eyes, whisker marks on her cheeks, and nothing to cover her well formed assets except for two fuffly red fox tails with black tips and a few thick whisps of left over smoke.

Needless to say, Iruka's nosebleed caused him to lose conciousness. Where the hell had his rambunctious student learned a techniuqe like that? Iruka found himself desperately hoping that Naruto wasn't another Jiraiya in the making, otherwise the bath-houses would never be safe.

((At the Yamanaka home))

Naruto had decided to just go home for the day, as going back to school would only surely result in hours worth of detention.

He walked into the Yamanaka's backyard before turning back into his vulpine form. Unfortunately for Naruto, he had recently been banned from entering the house except at night and for a short time after Ino got home from school, because he had broken two of Ino's mom's favorite vases. In fact, if it weren't for his constant whining and scratching at the back door when he wasn't allowed to spend time with Ino-chan, he wouldn't be allowed in except at night. Naruto valued his time with Ino-chan almost as much as the time with Sakura... almost. Ofcourse he would never let the blonde haired kunoichi know that, she would surely skin him and wear his fur coat to festivals for his traitorous omision should he ever tell her.

He walked towards the far end of the yard where there was a tree with a perfect nook in it's roots for a fox Naruto's size and laid down after a light stretch. Soon enough he found himself dozing lightly in the spring warmth, one of his nine tails over his nose, his ears swiveling, constantly alert to danger or the arrival of the ever prized Yamanaka kunoichi.

Sometimes Naruto wondered if his feelings for Ino-chan were deeper than he wanted to admit. He had admitted to himself that she would never be a sister to him, she was higher than that role, and they seemed to close to be called friends.

Suddenly the gate to the yard opened, and Ino-chan walked in positively beaming. Narut must have been out of it longer than he thought, school wasn't supposed to end for a few hours. Naruto got up and padded over to her, yipping to gain her attention.

"Oh, Kyuubi-kun, you'll never guess what happened today," she said happily as she picked him up. Judging by the starry eyed look she had on he would say it definitely involved Sasuke. That was his only little pet peeve with the humans here in this village. All the females seemed to be naturals at playing the part of the fan-girl. Most of them worried more about their looks than their actual ninja skills, he did have to give it to Ino-chan, Sakura, and some other girls in the class. They had caught the drift from the Uchiha that he desired power so worked on equal time between grooming and training.

When Naruto gave her the cute 'head tilted to the side curiously' look she giggled a bit at the cuteness of it and elaborated on the events of the day, "I think Sasuke-kun smiled at me. Me! He smiled at me!" She knew that her little Kyuubi-kun probably couldn't understand her, but she just felt like gushing to someone and her parents weren't home.

Naruto, thinking she probably had exaggerated a misdirected look into a smile in the right angle of bad lighting, settled for being thoroughly squeezed in place of Sasuke. Not long afterwards Ino-chan, still with a bright smile on her face, took Naruto with her into the house for a light snack before going to head out to training.

The last year or so her parents insited that she start training with the Nara and Akimichi boys, their parents were certain they'd be put on the same team out of tradition. When she would leave, Kyuubi would follow her. She had atfirst tried to stop him, afraid that if things got out of hand that the cute little fox would get hurt. Her fears were alleviated however when it seemed the fox was content to just watch them and would always move away from the spot a stray attack was about to hit.

As Ino made her way out of the house Kyuubi followed her for a bit before deciding he'd rather ride then walked and yipped to get her attention. She of course bent down and picked him up giving im a half hearted glare.

"Kyuubi-kun, you're lazy, you know that?" He briefly wondered if she would say that if she knew he spent most of his time at night training out in the forrest. He just tilted his head to the side like before, pretending he didn't understand.

(( Once again two years later, day of the gennin exam))

Naruto twitched in nervous anxiety, waiting for his name to be called. Today decided who were drop outs and who were ninja. He had kind of cheated and looked at the schedules in the teachers lounge and found out that they were doing a written test for one part some partnered taijutsu tests and finally a justu test. The jutsu: Bunshin.

He knew he failed the written test, he was never a study kind of person, but he had done just above par on the taijutsu test. This last test decided whether or not he became a gennin, the test was failed or passed by getting the best two out of three.

Unfortunately, he knew that the bunshin was his worst jutsu. He never knew why, but he just couldn't produce a viable clone, no matter how much he practiced.

"Naruto," Iruka-sensei's voice startled the gennin out of his thought, "Please create two bunshin's."

Nodding mutely, Naruto formed a handseal to channel his powerful demonic chakra and said aloud, "Bunshin no Jutsu!" Smoke enveloped the room for a couple seconds before it cleared.

Naruto stood in the same position, beside him lay a beaten and battered version of himself. He looked over at it and could already hear Iruka shouting...

"YOU FAIL!" Or maybe that was actually Iruka. He turned to look over at his sensei and saw Mizuki, the assistant teacher start to speak.

"Iruka, maybe you're being to harsh. He did atleast make a clone," naruto didn't even bother listening to the rest of the conversation. When iruka picked a verdict there was no changing his mind. Naruto had failed and that was that.

He walked out of the room and went over to a lonely looking swing and watched as the other ninja paraded their headbands. He sighed, it was probably his fault. He probsbly hadn't practiced enough. He probably could have do-

"You know, he's hard on you because he wants you to meet your full potential," Said a voice from behind him. He turned around to meet the smiling face of Mizuki. The man still smelled of blood, but Naruto had learned to tolerate it. Not to mention that the man always seemed kind to him, not as kind as Iruka but pretty close. Perhaps the lingers scent of blood was what he'd heard about from other ninja, the lingering scent of blood that one has spilt.

"I know," Naruto turned back to the crowd of graduated students as he spoke, "but i just wanted to graduate so badly." He turned his eyes from the new ninja and towards the ground. His sensitive ears could hear some of the peple talk, some of it about him saying that is was good he didn't pass.

He just didn't get it. Why were people so mean to him? I mean, sure, he was a demon fox, But it wasn't like he'd ever done anything to harm them. He had sworn his alliegence with the Leaf the day he became a student, just like all the others.

"Well... I may know another way to graduate," the foul intentions behind Misuki's 'innocent' smile were obviously lost on Naruto as hope flooded into his large expressive blue eyes.

(( about two hours later as the sun is almost set, in the hokage's office))

"He is not to be harmed if it can be prevented, I want him brought directly to me so _I_ may question him on his motives," the Hokage said in a stern demanding voice. All of the assembled shinobi gave a nod of affirmation before jumping away to find the demon kit.

Iruka asked himself why Naruto would steal the Forbidden Scroll of jutsu? Could his student truly be the power hungry demon that people portrayed him to be?

Flash backs of Naruto and himself sharing ramen at Ichiraku's, times in class, though few and far between, where Naruto devoted his full attention to Iruka and his lesson, that grin of genuine elation when his stomach was full of his favorite ramen.

A humorless smile passed over iruka's lips as he checked Naruto's favorite haunts. The boy was nothing more than that; a boy. Be he demon or human he was still a child. There was not a single bone of malice in the boys body. And because of that Iruka came to the conclusion that whatever the reason for Naruto's thievery, it was benign in nature.

Stopping on a random building near the woods for a short break, Iruka noticed, out of the corner of his eye, the silver haird assistant teacher mizuki stop just infront of the thick expanse of trees. Not sure what willed him to do so, Iruka ducked out of sight when he saw Mizuki turning his head from left to right. he peaked his head over the edge of the roof he now lay upon. Mizuki had an almost malicious gleam to his features just before he disappeared into the trees.

Iruka watched for only a second before deciding he should probably look in the forrest for Naruto, more specifically in the direction Mizuki was going. Kicking off the roof he ran as fast as he could while searched for that rediculously colored orange jacket.

(( a few hours later))

Iruka had passed Mizuki in his search for his student. He no longer cared why Mizuki had lead him into this forrest as long as he could find Naruto. He had to know why Naruto took the scroll.

_Orange._

Wait! Back up. He skidded to a hault and turned around. He could just barely make out through the trees an annyingly bright color of orange. He immediately sprinted towards it.

Bursting through the tree line and into a small clearing, Iruka finally found his rogue student. Naruto was bent over, hands on his knees, and breathing hard. it looked as if he had been working out for the last few hours that everyone had been searching for him.

Naruto looked up to see his sensei and smiled.

"Iruka-sensei! I only had enough time to learn one jutsu... but that's enough right? Now I can become a ninja?" He had a big smile on his face.

Iruka frowned, "What are you talking about, Naruto? Why did you steal the Forbidden Scroll?"

The smile left Naruto's face as he heard Iruka's tone. He looked over at the scroll Mizuki told him about then back at Iruka.

"I was told if I can learn a jutsu on the scroll, I could pass. Doesn't it work that way? That's what Mi-"

The sound of something speeding through the air at high velocity suddenly reached the ears of both student and teacher. Not a second later Iruka found himself pinned to a tree by several kunai.

Mizuki jumped down out of the canopy and into the clearing, a smirk on his face.

"Mizuki! What's the meaning of this?"

"Can't you tell? I'm stealing the scroll and making the demon child the scape goat," His grin didn't falter once.

"What are you talking about, Mizuki-sensei?" Naruto looked at the silver haired chuunin.

"Naruto, why don't you give me that scroll now?" Mizuki held out his left hand expectantly.

Iruka meanwhile managed to pull one of the kunai free and threw it at the other chuunin's hand. Mizuki's yelp of pain brought a small sense of gratitude to him before he shouted to Naruto.

"Naruto, run! Don't let him have that scroll no matter what!" Naruto looked hesitantly for a second between his teacher and the apparent traitor then nodded his head. He quickly strapped the scroll to his back and made his way through the canopy.

"Hmph, even with an injured hand I can still kill the weak demon. I'll come back for you later Iruka," and with that Mizuki followed Naruto through the tree tops.

Iruka cursed as he began prying the other kunai and shuriken out.

(( Some twenty minutes later))

Naruto ran through the trees using all four limbs so he could move faster. Hoping that Mizuki wouldn't catch up to him.

Suddenly there was movement on his left and Iruka burst forth from the lower canopy.

"Naruto, quickly, give me the scroll before Mizuki catches up to us," He held out his hand.

Naruto ignored the hand and threw a punch, catching Iruka by surprise and knocking him towards the ground and he followed.

Iruka stood up with an evil smirk on his face. In a poof of smoke he revealed himself to be Mizuki under henge. He reached back and with almost blinding speed threw a giant shuriken. It whistled as it sped trough the air to hit Naruto in the stomach.

"So, how did you know it was me?" As he asked his question he reached back for his other shuriken. Once retrieved he began to slowly spin it.

"Simple. I'm not," He coughed badly spitting up blood," Naruto." Another poof of smoke and there was Iruka. he had a small sirk on his blood stained lips as he pulled the shuriken out of his stomach. Luckily his chuunin jacket took the runt of the attack.

Mizuki ractically growled, "Why do you protect that monster? He's nothing but a power hungry, blood thirsty demon. He no doubt became a ninja to get revenge on your village for killing his father! So why? Why protect his filthy soul form damnation?" Mizuki demanded. Iruka gave him an angry glare.

What neither of them knew was that Naruto was only fifty feet away hiding behind a tree, listening to their conversation. He briefly wondered what Mizuki meant in his reference to his father but let it slip to the back of his mind when he head Iruka started to speak again.

"Maybe you're right, Mizuki. Maybe he is a blood thirsty demon bent on our destruction," Naruto's head began to droop, tears just beginning to glisten in his eyes," But he's my friend and shinobi protect their friends, with their life if necessary." Naruto's foul mood instantly brightened, a silent gasp oming from his mouth. Iruka was... his friend?

He looked back on all the times that he and Iruka went out for ramen or Just sat somewhere and talked about the duties of the hokage or even one time when Iruka had taken him swimming outside of the village one summer.

"Then today you die for a demon brat!" Mizuki cocked his arm back to throw the shuriken. Before he could even start a forward movement with his arm Naruto came seemingly out of nowhere and delivered a powerful kick to his side, knocking him off balance.

Using the kick to put himself between Mizuki and Iruka.

"You little son of a-," Mizuki cursed him as he stood up.

"Touch my sensei again," Naruto lifted his eyes to glare at Mizuki, "And I'll _KILL_ you!" To the silver haired man's horror Naruto's eyes were now the brilliant crimson that his father's once were and exuding a killer intent that could color the air green. Mizuki shivered momentarily, before shaking it off and putting his smirk back on.

"Give me a break! You're not even a gennin! I'll kill you with one blow!"

"Just try it," he formed a cross hand seal, "I'll deal it back to you a thousand times over! Kage Bunshin!" Thousands of Naruto's filled the forrest surrounding them.

"C'mon and get some!"

"Come get me!"

"If you wont come to me..."

"...We'll just come get you!" the clones all shouted before rushing in.

For miles around the poor chuunin's screams could be heard.

"Iruka-sensei, are you ok?" Naruto asked running over to his teacher. Iruka had a smile on his face.

"Naruto close your eyes," Iruka responded ignoring his question. Naruto gave him a wary look then closed his eyes.

Iruka picked a kunai out of his pouch and carefully scratched the symbol of the leaf into Naruto's goggles metal plate so it could be clearly seen.

"Can I open my eyes yet?" he was beginning to get fidgety being very impatient.

"Yeah, you can open them," Iruka smiled at his student. Naruto reached up to touch his goggles, feeling the carving his traced it with his finger. his face alighted with a bright smile.

"Wait, does this mean...", Naruto looked hopefully at Iruka.

"Cangratulations, Naruto, You pass!" Naruto clutched Iruka in a hug yelling for joy.

"Yaha! Ramen on me!"

((The next morning in the Yamanaka house))

Naruto, in Kyuubi form, woke up with as close to a happy smile as he could get in this form. He stretched and yawned before jumping up on Ino's matress. She was sleeping rather peacefully a few strands of hair hanging in her face. Cocking his head to the side, Naruto decided he should probably let her rest.

He jumped down from he matress and walked to the door he nudged it open and walked down the stairs, being in no hurry this time he didn't trip. Once down stairs he proceeded to change to his human form.

"Morning, Naruto-Kun," Mrs. Yamanaka( Does anyone know her name?) greeted the fox demon.

He smiled and replied," Morning."

"You're up rather early. Is everything alright?" genuine concern laced her tone.

"Yeah, I'm ok. Just anxious to see who my team mates will be. Well i'm gonna go ahead and be off," Naruto practically sprinted through the doors and out towards the academy.

(( fifteed minutes later))

Naruto sat down smiling wide as ever. Students piled in mostly ignoring him, thinking he was just probably there to daydream of what it's like to be a real ninja.

"Hey, Naruto, what are you doing here? I thought only kids who passed were supposed to show up today," The voice belonged to Shikamaru. He was kind of lazy... ok really, _really_ lazy, but he was ok.

"I did pass. See?" he pointed to the mark carved into his goggles, the smile growing ever wider.

"How'd you do that?"

"That for me to know and you to guess," he smirked as he heard Shikamaru mumble 'Troublesome' and walk past him to his favorite seat at the back of the class.

Not long after that both Ino and Sakura burst through the academy doors arguing almost violently over who got there first. Naruto stared at them with love in his eyes but didn't seem to notice his gaze shifted towards Ino more than Sakura.

Before there argument could go any further Iruka walked in, "OK, everyone, take your seats. Let's get right into it."

Naruto ignored him for the most part only listening closely enough to hear his name.

"Team seven will be Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura," Sakura cheered, "and Yousai Toku." Toku was a tall burly student with black hair brown eyes and a constant scowl. He did worse on the test than even Kiba.

"Team eight will be Hyuuga Hinata, Inuzuka Kiba, and Arubame( is that right?) Shino," Naruto yawned. When would his name be called?

"Finally Team ten will be Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru, and Akamichi Chouji. That all. You will meet your instructors after lunch in one hour."

Realizing his name wasn't called Naruto frowned," Hey, Iruka-sensei, What about me? You didn't call my name."

"Oh, right, Naruto, I almost forgot. Silly me. Last night when you passed all the teams had already been chosen, so we were going to put you back in the academy anyways-"

"WHAT!"

"Let me finish. We were going to put you back, but Team ten's sensei decided he'd take the extra man so you'll be in their team," Iruka said smiing.

"WHAT!" this time it was from Ino, "Why does the deadlast have to be on my team! My pet fox could beat this guy hand down!" Naruto almost laughed at the Irony of her statement.

A/N: I believe this is a good lace to stop. No promises but i'm gonna try to post chapter three with in the next few days. Tell me what yall think.


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